Another Teaser...

There are several of these out now, this one if my favorite:

Release Date is July 20!

I will be an associate selling copies via this blog...stay tuned for links!

Please spread the word - pin this/blog this!

It will minister to so many women!

Here's a quote from my chapter/question answers:

"The very thing you fear most will not be sent your way without the grace that only God can give. When I have been in trying and difficult times, God's grace has enabled me to endure in ways that I could not have understood beforehand. So when I worry about the “what if”s, I am on my own. I experience the trials in my imagination without the grace that God will provide if and when that trial comes to me from His loving hand. God does not promise that His grace is sufficient for the "what ifs" - but He does promise in II Cor 2:9 that "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" and in Phil 4:13 "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" - He will give us the strength to do what He asks us to do, and the grace needed for each day."

May I introduce our latest additions to our family!

We have joined the ranks of so many of our friends in owning milk goats!  We have now reached "hobby farm" I do believe - over 50 chicken (25 meat chicks right now) and now goats!  We aren't gardening right now, but oh well!

Esther and Carese both have milk allergies, as well as several of our other children.  We tried out goat's milk on Esther and Carese about a month ago and they both did so well!  We have been thinking about getting milk goats for over two years now, and my oldest three girls have been working that long to convert our horse shed/area into a goat's shed.  They finally got all the remodeling done just last week.  Just to be clear - this is our big girl's project!  I want the milk, but I'm so done with animals (in the past we've had chickens, rabbits, sheep, goats and a pig...but it usually ended up in my doing all the work).  So this is a business for the girls.  They've paid for everything except the goats, and they will be continuing to purchase all the feed.  The plan has been that when we get milk, they will get "reimbursed" for their expenses at a reasonable rate.  They are hoping to make a profit...I really have no idea if they will or not!

Just when the remodeling was done, we found the perfect set of goats on Craigslist.  And guess what?  We knew the owners very well (she used to work for me!).  God's timing is amazing isn't it?  She was wanting to be finished with goats completely, and so when we bought what was left of her herd, she also gave us a milking stanchion and a few other items that will come in handy!

Caramel and her twin boys, Joshua and Caleb (yes, Ruth D, they are named after your boys as their temperaments and behavior reminded our girls of your boys!),  and Peaches (a yearling) and her baby doling, Apricot!  Then names of the kids are not set in stone yet...

Caramel is a purebred Lamancha, and her boys' (both wethers) father was a Nubian Dwarf.  We will be finding new homes for the wethers later this summer.  Caramel is a Lamancha/Nubian cross and is 3 years old, and her daughter has the same father as the boys.  We will be testing out a purebred Nubian to see if the noise will be OK sometime in July (after she kids), and if that goes well we will be selling one of the girls, but we aren't sure about any of this yet.

The goats are of the quiet variety and even though the shed is directly out from out bedroom window, we can't hear them unless the window is open!  We have an air conditioner in that room, so we don't have the window open when we sleep, so it works just fine!

Carese loves the new goats, Esther isn't so sure yet.  Elizabeth did goats for the youth fair this year and really enjoyed it and loves the goats too.

The first two milking tries have not gone well, as the mother's have not been milked much/at all recently.  But Jessica did successfully bring some milk in the house this morning.  She has much work to do to keep Peaches from sticking her feet in the bucket, and keeping Caramel from sitting down when she thinks milking is finished!  Those girls are stinkers!

We can go through a lot of milk around here if I don't restrict it's consumption.  I'm sure all our children would think it amazing if they could drink all the milk they want (this is possible if was have two good milking goats!).

Here's a cute video of the fun they had when they discovered our picnic table!  Joshua and Caleb were playing King of the Hill - I think they were showing off for Apricot.  You can tell which mother is Peaches as Apricot is always by her side!  All the play going on for Jessica's dog, Sebastian, all excited and he just had to run in there and do something!

(our camera is missing in action...hopefully I'll post more photos of the goats at a later date!)

Announcing the engagement of...

Jeremy and Samantha

Engaged 6/8/13

Jeremy and Sam  (as she prefers to be called), first noticed each other over a year ago. Jeremy spent a few months getting to know her father (more like her father getting to know Jeremy) about a year ago.  Last December, Jeremy was given permission to court Sam, and she was very happy to be courted by Jeremy.

Just shy of 5 months of courting, Jeremy planned a very special day at a local park.  At the previously planned appointed time, his brother, Jonathan, would "disappear."  Jeremy very sweetly asked Sam to marry him, and she agreed!

There is no date set yet, but the ring is gorgeous - Jeremy did an excellent job of picking it out all by himself!

Photos courtesy of Sam's sister, Ali's Shutter Bug Photography Blog

Needless to say we wholeheartedly approve and are so proud of Jeremy in being such a godly young man and seeking to glorify God in this and every area of his life.  And we look forward to adding Sam to our list of godly daughters!

Three Decades of Fertility - Book to Release Soon!

I wrote a chapter for this book.  I have read many of the other chapters and they are amazing stories of God's grace and faithfulness as these women live out their lives as moms, devoted to giving the "best years of their lives" to the amazing mission of motherhood.

The book is due to release in early July, and I'll be selling it right here on my blog!


Three Decades of Fertility - Trailer from Visionary Womanhood on Vimeo.

Summer Time + Esther's New Therapy

I'm copying this from Esther's blog as this is really keeping our family busy these past few weeks!

Esther LOVES to help Carese...
far more than Carese likes to be helped, though!

Summer has arrived, and with it some beautiful weather!  In the past few months, we were given a swing set which is getting a lot of use now, and we got a steal of a deal on a swimming pool (ours died of old age last year) as well.  The kids haven't been in the pool much in the last two weeks due to cool/rainy weather, but that all changed this week!

Esther enjoyed our first "Lake Day"

Summer also means "Lake Days."  We have some sweet friends who live on the lake, and they invite us over almost every week for some beach time.  We all enjoy this special treat!  Last Friday was our first "Lake Day" and we all had so much fun.  Esther spent almost the entire time in the water, and enjoyed every minute of the day.  Carese kept me busy, and it took a while for her to get used to wearing a life jacket, but Esther had no problems with the "life jacket all the time" rule at all!

Last winter we heard about a neurodevelopmental program that a dear friend of mine had discovered, which had made a huge difference in her child - leaping 18 months in development in just 4 months.  The second 4 months did not show this great leap of developmental progress, but there were other extenuating factors.  But she had continued to progress more rapidly with this program than with any of the other therapies that they had tried.

Esther learning her alphabet while getting her hair combed,
after getting dressed and getting her glasses on.
While we are doing therapy with Esther we have Mozart
playing on our stereo for brain stimulation.

We researched the "Can Do" program, and found out that they would even be at our Christian Heritage Homeschool Convention!  Even though it was difficult to come up with the up front costs, we decided that it was the best time to start this program for Esther, as during the summer months I have less on my plate (homeschooling break) and it would be good to start this program before Esther's new sister come homes (her adoption should be finalized next winter).

Esther had her first evaluation at the beginning of May, and at that time I was also taught everything I needed to know to implement the program that they custom designed for Esther.  We will be sending in updates every two weeks and later every month.  We will have her re-evaluated every 4 months (that is how often they are in our area).  Can Do services 8 states (WA, ID, CA, ND/MN, MI, OH and NY) and families drive a long way to use their services.  Thankfully, we only have to drive about 1 hour away!

Here are some photos of Esther's therapy!

Esther leaning animal sounds while getting deep pressure massage
to her hand/arms/feet/legs.
Jessica is doing the massage in this photo.

Our therapy checklist for the week, and her daily meds/supplements
most of which go into her yogurt.
The penny bank and pennies is for fine motor skills
- she has to pick up the pennies and put them into the bank!
That is Daniel's job - to help Esther with this therapy.
You can also see "bite tubes" in a baggy.
The bite tubes are part of her mouth stimulation and for
strengthening her jaw for better speech later.

Esther gets a vibration massage to her hands a feet while she eats her yogurt
this helps develop her brain/body connection to help her overcome
her high pain tolerance and prepare her for potty training.
Here Rachel is working with Esther

Esther's memory cards.  She is learning the names of the items on the cards
both to say them and to point them out on command.
She can only do one at a time, but we are working to help her be able
to point to two in a row and then three, and then four.
You can see Carese is also at the table "playing" therapy.

These are photo cards that I made.  There is the word for the item in the photo on the back
We show her the word, and then the photo, and then the word again
She loves these cards and is saying more words now, as well as
pointing to the object in the photos!

Dayton is helping Esther learn her numbers.
All the children (except Carese) help Esther with different parts of her therapy
as each child is able - it's their "school" for the summer!

This is Carese - she stole this sucker/sponge that we use for mouth stimulation with Ether
She loves these (she's been teeting)
We use this with Esther,one is dipped in very warm water and swished around in Esther's moujt
The other one is put in very cold water and we alternate between the two.

Esther has many other therapies, but I'll save those for another post!

If you want to check into this program, check out their website - Can Do

They are a christian company who focus on teaching parents to work with their children at home to enable their children to reach their greatest potential - it's for children with any disabilities, even ADHD, dyslexia and Autism!

A fun little video of Carese, our Crazy Climber/Adrenaline Junky

We are busy with summer projects (painting and a new product for my business, Snap-EZ) and a new therapy program for Esther (working on a whole blog post about that).  We are in a waiting stage of our adoption as paperwork is all turned in and we are waiting for everything to get processed.

Carese has turned into a climber - she can climb chairs now and has been caught eating cookies that were sitting on the kitchen counter.

I thought you might enjoy this video, and it shows what a determined little girl she is!


Stay tuned for a Child highlight for Jonathan who turned 20 just over a week ago!

A Belated Happy Birthday to Jessica!

Poor Jessica - we were in the midst of the stomach flu in our family when her birthday arrived.  Even worse, she had held out long enough that she didn't get sick until the wee hours of her birthday morning.  How miserable is that!  That will most definitely go done in the annuls of the worst birthday in her life, possibly forever!

So, in suit for my purpose this year in highlighting each child on his/her birthday, here's my "ode to Jessica' for her birthday, quite belated - her birthday was on May 8.

Jessica was our first girl baby.  She arrived just 19 months after Jason had joined our family.  Back then, ultrasounds were rare, so we had no idea if we were having a girl or a boy.  I had suspicions that I was carrying a girl, but really didn't dare to hope.  Once we went past the due date, I began to be more and more convinced that this was a girl, as both boys had been close to their due dates (Jeremy was 2 days late, and Jason was born on his due date).

Since I was officially 2 weeks past my due date, I was scheduled for an induction.  Once again I experienced a pitocin labor.  Not fun.  But after just 6 hours of labor, Jessica was born, weighing exactly the same as Jeremy - 7 pounds 10 ounces.  She was pink and so cute!  She had the tiniest head, so tiny that when she was all bundled up she looked like a preemie!

Jessica was a very good baby.  I needed her to be.  I had to return to work when she was just a couple of weeks old.  I took her to work with me, everyday, until she was mobile.  She played contentedly at work, and I even brought her to clients homes (we owned a custom drapery store).  I loved dressing her up in the lacy, fluffy dresses that a friend passed on to us.  It was so fun to have a little girl after the two boys.

She was slow to grow hair, so I glued bows on her head until she had enough hair to put in clips...but that wasn't until she was nearly 2 years old!  Finally, when she was just over 2 years old, I was finally a stay at home mom.  Jessica was so happy to have me all the time - she was a serious momma's girl.

She loved it every time we added a new baby to our family. She was such a little momma!  She was thrilled when we had Rebekah, as that meant that she wasn't the only girl anymore!  She doted on Rebekah so much, even though she was only 5 years old, she was a pro at caring for babies by then!

As Jessica grew up she developed a love for kittens, horses and dogs.  When she was about 9 years old we started a 4 H group and she thrived.  She raised sheep, rabbits, and puppies.  She showed chickens, rabbits, sheet and goats at the fair through 4H.  She developed a talent for baking as she grew up as well.

She also has a talent for music.  She learned to play the piano and violin when she was young, and she also loves to sing.  She still does all of them and does them exceptionally well!  She also love to play games and has since she was little.

When my business started, she also learned to sew for me.  She had already done sewing, especially through 4H.  She continued to raise puppies as a side business.  She loved puppies!

She showed her determined spirit when she saved up enough money to go visit her cousins in Chicago for spring break when she was 13 years old!  Reminded me of myself - I saved up the money to visit my brother in Germany when I was 13 years old too!

Jessica has always been very close to her older brothers, and when Jeremy went off to join the Marines, it was really hard on her.  She continued to invest in her relationships with her other siblings through the years, and she is a favorite for many of our younger children.

When Esther was born, Jessica ended up taking over running the house.  This was a giant leap for her. While she had learned to do just about everything there is to do in our home and in my business, but now she was nearly completely responsible to do it all, with little or no help from me as I was in the hospital for weeks on end with Esther.  I think this time in her life may have been both the most difficult and the most defining time in her life.  She was challenged deeply and many times felt that she just couldn't do it, but she was able to manage.  This gave her a great sense of accomplishment that has helped her to tackle great projects with confidence.



Since that time she has saved and taken a trip to Germany for a short term missions trip, and she also built a horse shelter and had a horse for a few months.  She has pushed our family back into having chickens and has been working for a couple of years to get our family ready to have milk goats.

Today Jessica still loves to spend time with her brothers, often spending days on end at Jeremy's house or taking trips with them.  She is so good with the babies, and is great at getting things going in the morning when I'm busy with business or taking care of the little girls.  She is still a momma's girl and loves to go with me to run errands or to take Esther to Children's for checkups and appointments.  But she's very independent too.  She has started taking violin lessons again and has taken classes to be a care provider for children with special needs.  She loves to play games, and her latest addiction is the board game "Ticket To Ride" (OK, so our whole family is addicted to this!).

Jessica is continuing to learn how to care for a home and how to run a home business.  She continues to take on more responsibilities both at home and away from home.  She does quite a few voluntary things at church as well.

She loves the Lord and spends time in His word.  She also takes time almost every morning to read to the children after breakfast, both from scripture and from books.  She has completed more books reading aloud to the children that we can count.  I'm so thankful for this as this is such an important piece in the development of children's learning, but as a busy mom of many, I find it so hard to find the time to read to the children.  When our children were young (and there were far fewer of them), I used to read to them at bedtime and we read through so many good books.  But life had sped up and it just doesn't work right now, so this is really a great ministry that Jessica does for our family everyday!

Jessica is a blessing to our family and to those who know her.  She is a loyal friend and has a very generous nature.  She loves to have fun, and is willing to take risks (like white water rafting last year!).  She is a valuable part of our family.  We are so pound of the young woman she has become.

We are also excited to see what her future holds.  God bless you, Jessica, in all you do and in all you become.